America and the power to make you feel small

I come from a small town, a small family with tiny possibilities and big issues….but those don’t count and they are not the focus of today’s tale. Like any other small town boy, I had a dream about big things and escapes into the big wonderful world…and what is bigger and more wondrous than USA?

So it happened that right at the beginning of my first travellings I had the chance to visit Washington. I imagined many things about this trip but I never imagined how small this journey will make me feel.

I honestly thought that the second time around and a few years later, New York will treat me better. After all, I was no longer a young student but a boyband boy with screaming girls after me and a rise to fame that should have positioned me on level terms with the famous NY. But no, same old feeling of being little. From the waiting at the embassy in Bucharest to get the precious visa, to the checking and double checking of my accounts and fortune to make sure I don’t run away and get lost into their beloved Wild West and finally to the intense stare of customs police once in New York.

I can’t help it but wonder, are we small just because we were born in a certain place? Does that define us? Are we forever condemned to wait in a line? Who is the judge of who we are and who has the right to label us? Nobody. I realized a very simple thing…I only label myself. Why do we obsess about one country when there is a whole big world out there? Do we really think that Brazil will be less exciting? Do we believe that Africa is not worth our time? Is China a small country with nothing to offer? And I realized that the world will treat me just as I allow it to do so. The way I feel is totally up to myself.

New York is a great city and I am sure there are many other great things to see in Dreamland USA but I stay loyal to you Amsterdam with your cozy streets, I miss you London with your great history, I have amazing memories from you Thailand and your exotic lands and you will always be in my heart Paris….neah, not really cause you belong right across Atlantic with your cocky attitude.

So no more dreaming of America for me because I refuse to stay in a line, I don’t want to tell any embassy how much money I make cause I don’t apply for a damn loan and I don’t want to justify my trip.

To me travelling is just like dreaming, a world of possibilities, adventure and discovery. Do I need to justify my dreams?

I have this beautiful miniature globe that I received as a gift and as I hold it, I rather think that the world is in the palm of my hand. My hometown is indeed small but my imagination has no border.

I promise I will be as small as my dreams are….and we both know I am a DREAMER :)